Itsudatte Bokura no Koi wa 10 cm Datta. – 04

This ain’t ten centimeters!

Miou’s in a funk and a half, and really just wants to curl up and die, or at least switch places with Serizawa’s dearly departed brother, since she doesn’t deserve to live while he’s dead, and it’s all her fault for drowning. This is of course patently ridiculous…yet here we are.

Of course, Miou doesn’t tell any of this to Akari or Natsuki right away, but they don’t like her in this troubled state and do all they can to support and cheer her up. Such nice friends!

“My finger camera…broken?!”

Miou’s sudden disappearance from his life, compounded with the notice that he’s won the chance to study abroad in America, is also weighing on Haruki. Frankly, both protagonists are real mopey pains in the ass this week, and it was most unpleasant to watch.

I’d like to think I’d have the patience of Miou and Haruki’s friends, but some one can only snap at you, or tell you they’re no good, so many times before one has no choice but to throw their hands up and say “You know what, fine! You’re right! Now go suck someplace else!”

“There you go, quit being a whiny little brat and paint something!”

While Haruki sinks deeper into the muck, even questioning whether he really wants to be a filmmaker or if he’s just carrying on his brother’s dream, Miou thankfully comes to a sort of epiphany when Natsuki begs her and Akari to help her out at a community art class.

Echoing the cold open where a Lil’ Miou wowed her preschool-mates with her drawing, Miou interacts with an ornery little boy and gets him to cooperate and even have fun, then moves from person to person giving tips and encouragement. She clearly has a knack for talking about and teaching art.

“Let’s do this, canvas.”

She also later realizes she can’t keep the secret about Haruki’s brother inside forever or it will eat away at her like a sickness. So she comes clean, only it’s nothing to “come clean” or even blame oneself for; Natsuki can’t stress it to Miou enough: It’s not her fault,and staying away from Haruki out of fear he’ll hate her will only make him hate her.

Natsuki and Akari agree both Miou and Haruki are at their best when they’re on good terms, talking and hanging out together. So even though Haruki can’t see any future with Haruki in it (especially now that he’s headed for America), that isn’t going to stop her from imagining that future anyway—starting on the canvas, which she returns to with newfound desire to fill it with her vision of “love.”

Besides, Haruki may not end up going to America anyway. He just needs a reason to stay.